


Ink

by Pallas_Athena



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-02-23
Packaged: 2018-03-04 18:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3083039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pallas_Athena/pseuds/Pallas_Athena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reyna and Thalia come to NY for Nico's 16th. And when they find out he's not  dating Will yet,Reyna issues an ultimatum that will force Nico to confront his feelings for his friend .</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Reyna, you really don’t have to come all this way-"  
"Nico, I am coming to visit whether you like it or not." Even through the Iris Message, Reyna looked deadly. Athena’s blessing had dissolved from her cloak,but her Imperial Gold armor gleamed in the fading sunlight that filtered in through the "skylight" in the Senate House. "You only turn sixteen once, Nico." Reyna said. From somewhere off screen, Nico heard a familiar gravelly voice chime in : "Unless, of course, you’re me and avoid it for the rest of eternity." Thalia Grace sauntered into view, wearing an ACDC cutoff shirt and grey camouflage pants.

  
It had been two years since he had last seen her, but she looked the same. The only difference was her hair. The right side of her head was newly shaved short, with a zigzag running through it like a lightning bolt. “I’m coming too, Ghost King. I have seen you since”-her voice broke-’ since San Juan. Besides, its been a while since I kicked Jackson’s butt at Capture the Flag, don’t you think?

  
Nico relented, reminding himself that these were his friends and they wanted to see him. Well, Reyna was definitely his friend. But Thalia? He just didn’t know. She was so closely tied with what had happened to Bianca… “Okay, but I’m warning you, it’s cold. Even here at camp.” Thalia waved him off. ”I’ll be fine. I’m gonna have a look around- I’ve never been in your lecture hall.” Reyna’s serious demeanor seemed to falter for a moment. “Thalia, it’s the Senate House, not a lecture hall! And don’t touch anything!” She turned back to Nico looking miffed.” I had to buy a jacket. Why does your birthday have to be in winter?”

Nico laughed, picturing Reyna, used to the California sun, wading through snow here in New York. “Are you two driving here?” Reyna’s expression darkened even further, as if she realized she would have to travel cross-country with Thalia. “Yes. I don’t have all the details together, but we should get there late Monday night, so we can spend most of the day in the City on your actual birthday.” “That- that sounds really fun, Reyna.”He ran a hand through his hair, not really sure how to thank her.

 

 

”How’s Will Solace?” Nico’s head snapped up. “You’re not still mad about that, are you?” Reyna drew herself up in her Praetor’s chair, launching into a poor imitation of Will’s voice: “Barbaric, crude stitching job on both left and right biceps, permanent scarring likely. Monitoring of said wounds will require an additional two days in the Infirmary.” Nico shook his head, trying not to laugh. “Reyna, that was two years ago. Get over it.”  
"So you’re still friends with him?" Nico rolled his eyes. "Yes Reyna, I actually have the ability to make friends" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Thalia had reappeared next to Reyna’s chair, clearly bored of the Senate House. Thalia smirked, her eyes glinting mischievously. "Talking about Will? Because a little birdie named Piper told me-"  
Nico’s face flamed. “Thalia, don’t you dare!”  
”- that on New Year’s Eve,when the ball dropped; you kissed Will.”


	2. Chapter two

Nico raised his head to look at Reyna, unsure of how she would react. To his surprise, she was beaming at him. Reyna had known for a few years now, ever since that whole ordeal in South Carolina, which he really tried not to think about.  
Reyna’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. “Nico, I’m really happy for you- gods know it took long enough for you two to get together-but you tell your boyfriend if he dare-”  
“Reyna! he is not my boyfriend!” Nico could feel the blush spreading across his face.  
He should’ve known that Reyna would jump to conclusions like this.

Judging from Thalia’s expression, she knew that too. It dawned on Nico that she had led him into a trap. Reyna would want to know everything that had happened that night, and Thalia probably heard all of it from Piper and Jason. If Nico didn’t tell Reyna, she would.

Nico shot Thalia an angry glare, but she just shrugged, like “she would have found out eventually.”  
He tensed his shoulders, preparing to be interrogated.

Reyna sat forward in her chair,her expression quickly changing into her“ I will take no bullshit from you” face. She snapped her fingers, and her dogs appeared out of nowhere, taking their respective places on either side of her chair. Shit. Nico had hoped she wouldn’t call her metal dogs, because they could sense when someone was lying.  
Kissing Will when the ball had dropped was nothing compared to what had happened earlier that night. And if Thalia knew, and the dogs were here, he was screwed.

A line from that old animated movie he had watched with Hazel a few weeks ago popped into his head.  
“Be prepared!”  
“For what?”  
“The death of the King!”

Nico could relate.  
“Okay, we’re losing light on this side, but you’re gonna answer a few questions before we go.” Reyna’s tone made it clear that she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

He briefly considered cutting through the Iris message- that’s how badly he did not want to have this conversation- but Reyna would just kill him later. And if she did actually hurt him, he’d have to go to the Infirmary, and Will was always at the Infirmary...no. He scolded himself. Grow up, di Angelo.  
“Fiine.” Nico fought to keep his voice even, but on the inside, he was still panicking.  
Knowing Reyna, she would demand some sort of ultimatum, like “ You’re gonna tell Will how you feel about him and figure all this out before I leave New York so I don’t have to worry about you.”

Nico was no coward, but he didn’t exactly have the best track record when it came to dealing with his feelings.  
He had run away from Camp Half-Blood when he was eleven, depending on the vengeful spirit of Minos to guide him through a horrible maze that tried to kill him at every turn. He should have stayed at camp, gone to school in the city, but noooo. He was so ashamed of his feelings, he could barely face himself. So he ran. In Croatia, he had nearly gotten himself and Jason killed for the same reason.  
On one hand, the idea of telling Will terrified him. On the other….  
“Nico.”  
“Yeah?”

Reyna raised her eyebrows expectantly. “Well?”  
Now Nico was confused. He felt like he had missed something. “Well what?”  
Thalia dissolved into snickering from her perch on the arm of Reyna’s chair. The two of them exchanged a glance like “can you believe this kid?”  
“My question- which you clearly did not hear- was: if he’s not your boyfriend, than what is he to you?”  
Nico’s kneejerk reaction was to say “He’s just my friend.” My best friend. But that wasn’t really true anymore. At least, he didn’t want it to be. Nico couldn’t pinpoint when exactly he had started liking Will, but he knew he had it bad . Over time, he had stopped picking fights and bickering with him to be annoying, but to watch how his dark blue eyes would smolder and he would do that _thing_ with his jaw. He couldn’t tell when his jokes about Will’s fighting skills had shifted from making him feel better about himself to see how Will’s eyebrows would raise when challenged, how his shoulders would set with determination, how the muscles in his back would ripple as he drew his bow.  
The worst thing? he had absolutely no idea what to about it. Until New Years’ eve happened.  
“He’s… it’s kind of complicated.”

The Iris Message had started to flicker as Argentum and Aurum snarled. “Oh wait,wait,Reyna! Are those jelly beans? You’ve been holding out on me!” Thalia started to move towards Reyna’s huge bowl of jelly beans on the table.  
A rookie mistake.  
‘Thalia NO!” Reyna lunged out of view, her dagger drawn.The end of her braid cut through the Iris Message, and Nico was alone in the dark of his cabin. He hopped up from his bed,crossing the room to pull across the curtain. Moonlight had been pouring in, casting patterns on the floor. When Hazel had been visiting a few weeks ago for her birthday,they had been playing around with Iris Messages, sending them to each other from across the cabin. They had figured out they could send them at night like this, using the moonlight. Nico suspected it only worked for them because Hazel had gotten on the goddess’s good side a few years ago out in Cali.

Regardless, Hazel had somehow created the “rainbow” by reflecting moonlight off a huge diamond. She had kept the diamond,a huge princess cut, in order to send messages to him. Over the years, the Roman had started using Iris messages more than their giant eagles for messengers, especially to keep in correspondence with the Greeks. The pegasi sort of went “freak mode” when the eagles came into their airspace.

On the last day of her visit, Hazel had given a diamond to Nico to use for IMing. Even though it was her birthday, Hazel liked giving gifts to people.  
He remembered how she had presented his gift, all dramatic. She bowed low so her curls had flopped into her face. when she stood up, she had put her hand across her chest like she was going to start reciting some Shakespeare. “I present this gift to you,my dear Nico, King of Ghosts, Salyer of Lycaon- and lots of other nasty beasties- in hopes you will keep me updated as I return to California.” Frank was cracking up at this point. Hazel had managed to keep a straight face as she placed a small box in his lap.

It was a diamond that Hazel had somehow shaped into a skull. Nico had been the end of way to many skeleton jokes, but this took the cake. His expression must have been pretty good, because Hazel was laughing so hard Frank had to carry her out when they finally left.  
He let out a big sigh, placing the diamond on his nightstand. It took him a while to fall asleep, but when it did, the shadows pulled him back into the one night he did not want to relive :New Years’ Eve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on tumblr: athena-slytherin  
> sorry this took forever but yeah. I will try to write on more of a schedule  
> :)


	3. Chapter three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am trash for not updating take this as a peace offering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey look I wrote a chapter with a good length for once. kudos/comments are greatly appreciated :)

The Stolls had transformed the basement of the Big House, clearing crates of strawberry preserves to create a huge open area in the center of the room. It seemed like almost everyone was there by the time Nico wandered down. he recognized a lot of faces from around camp, but it was weird seeing them all together like this.

His default was to look for Piper and Jason because they probably knew what was going on. He found them talking to Drew, of all people. Jason stepped aside to greet him, ruffling Nico’s hair in a big brother-ish way. Nico scowled at him. " Ah c'mon Nico, lighten up," He pointed back to Drew and Piper. "we're gonna play spin the bottle later."

A cold sense of dread crashed over Nico as he noticed a bottle in Drew's hand. It was an old, empty wine bottle, nearly as long as his forearm. "And," Jason continued, "Will is here, so you have no excuse to sit out like you did last time." Nico didn't know how to respond to that, so he scowled again. Piper appeared at Jason's side, wearing a pair of those cheap glasses with the numbers of the new year made out of the lenses. "Yo, di Angelo, the Stolls are looking for you." _Well that can't be good_ , Nico thought. "What do they want?" he demanded. Piper tugged at one of the red feathers in her hair. " They said they had a special job for you to do because you skipped setup."

 

...

Nico ducked around people, fuming about the situation he had gotten himself in. He hadn't _skipped_ setup for the party. He had _accidentally overslept_ setup because he had been up late talking to Hazel. But he couldn't exactly say no to Connor and Travis.They had stayed at camp well beyond what a regular camper would, and they had done a lot, in their own sneaky way.  

They were famous all over social media for being caught on camera pick-pocketing from politicians and Wall Street goons at several New York area airports. But the mortal police had never caught them. Nico knew that they probably went and did the same to regular mortals all the time, stealing "for the good of camp". The iPhone in his back pocket was because of them, with a little rigging from Cabin Nine. Plating the hard drive in Celestial bronze was all it took. Nearly all the head counselors had one now.

Annabeth had a phone for several years before the Hephaestus bunch had figured this out, one of those huge Samsung's with the little pen.  They had gotten a few demigod-proof phones out to the Roman officers, it was easy to replace the backs of the "gold" iPhones with real Imperial gold. Nico and Jason were the only Big Three kids that had phones, assuming Thalia was't running around in the wilderness with an unlimited data plan. Hazel insisted she could just borrow Frank's or Reyna's and Percy figured he would drop it in water or lose it . He was probably right. 

Nico finally found Travis and Connor standing around a table with Dakota, one of a handful of Romans still here from Christmas. The table was piled with dollar bills,Drachmas, and various Roman coins. In lieu of giving him a handshake, the brothers handed him back his wallet and phone.  Nico carefully counted the money in his wallet before stuffing it back in his jeans pocket. 

He surveyed the table, trying to guess what they were up to. "You guys playing poker? Cause I'm pretty good. One of the good things I got out of being trapped in that casino."

 "I bet you are an excellent poker player, my little mafioso-" Connor winced,pinching the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, stereotype, but guess again. "  Normally, the Italian stereotypes people had really irritated him, but he just shrugged it off this time. He much rather would have been playing cards that Spin the Bottle. Travis and Connor were probably pretty good, being Hermes kids, but Nico's father was the god of wealth. He almost always won when money was involved.

Travis reached over and smacked the back of his brothers' head. "What this idiot is trying to say that all  this is from bets on who's hooking up during Spin the Bottle." Travis explained, gesturing to the stacks of money. Nico was kinda out of the loop with some modern things, but he was pretty sure he knew how Spin the Bottle worked. "Isn't that kind of... up to the bottle?"  The brothers exchanged glances, grinning mischievously. "Well, that's how mortals play, but we have our own set of rules."

...

They tried to simplify the story as much as they could.  Basically, back in the 80's some head counselors had stolen a bottle of the wine made from the  camp's strawberries and gotten bored while they were drinking. By the time they had finished the bottle they had come up with something to do, combining two popular mortal party games, Spin the Bottle and Seven Minutes in Heaven.  They would spin the bottle to determine who they locked in a closet together for seven minutes.

"And, according to the legend, the Aphrodite kids put some charm on the bottle so it could sense the emotions of the people in the room.  That made it deadly accurate. _Deadly._ " 

It dawned on Nico that it was the same bottle he had seen Drew holding earlier. Travis nodded. " But that's not important. What do you know about Pollux?"

"Um, after the Titan War, he went to some fancy culinary school in New York City and he came back to Camp Half-Blood when the Romans were going to attack. He met Dakota and now he's bartending at a club on the Upper East Side." Nico was really confused now. What the Hades did they want him to do?

Connor pointed to a corner of the room near the stairs. Someone had set up a bar, and Pollux himself was standing behind it.  He was built like a lumberjack but was only a few inches taller than Nico. Like his father, his hair was wound in tight curls that lay close to his scalp, but Pollux's hair was an ashy blond instead of black.

"So, Nico, he has alcohol with him, some kind. He has to, 'cause he brought all his stuff from his job. Your mission is to get him to give us some. Whatever he has." 

That was his _special job?_ " Why me?" Nico demanded. "Get Piper to charmspeak him, and boom, problem solved."  Connor shifted uncomfortably. "Well, see that's the-"

He was cut of by Dakota's barking laugh. "Oh man, Nico, they tried earlier but it didn't work cause he's Ace. It was so _funny."_ His gaze went unfocused like it did when he had drank too much Kool-Aid. His eyes fixed on the table, his voice dropping to a whisper. " But I still win the Queer Sibling Award because I'm Pan as fuck." At that, he stumbled away, disappearing into the crowd.

Travis and Connor gave him a mock salute, and then Nico was alone. He ran a hand through his hair, unsure what to do next. _Well maybe walking over there would be a good start, dumbass._ He was about to do just that when a familiar ear-piercing whistle cut through the air. "God dammit, Will." Nico muttered, rubbing at his ears. That was enough to get everyone's attention. Piper had to shout over all the people complaining about their ears popping. " Hey, guys circle up! We're gonna start now." _  
_

...

Sitting on the concrete floor was cold and uncomfortable. The game had been going on twenty minutes now and they had barely gotten halfway around the circle. Nico was trying to keep his emotions blank in case the bottle was actually charmed. So far, it seemed like it might be, but then he saw Jason. Every so often when it was someone's turn, him and Piper would exchange glances and Jason would "casually" study the ceiling until the bottle stopped spinning. Nico dug out his phone to check the time. Still two more hours until the ball dropped. His phone buzzed with a Trivia Crack notification. ** _Cecil didn't answer correctly. your turn!_** Nico smiled dryly. Cecil was horrible at trivia, but now he had something to pass the time.

 

He was so consumed in the game, he didn't noticed the bottle had stopped spinning, pointed directly at him.  Nico slowly lifted his head to see Will standing in front of him.  _Oh Gods no._ Will offered out his hand to help Nico up. "Lets go, Sunshine."  With the butterflies in his stomach rising into his throat, Nico followed Will upstairs.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on Tumblr: pallas--athena


End file.
